quite a trip

This week Ray had a conference in Burlingame as I’ve talked about here.  Originally, Emma and I were going to go with him for the week and hang out in the city, but I’ve gotten to the lovely point in the pregnancy where sleeping just sucks so I thought it would be better just to wait until the end of the week and stay one night.

The plan was to go to Emma’s Fun Fitness Class (she has that every Monday & Wednesday) at 3, pick up my Timptations box at 4 and head out to Burlingame.  But then I thought it would be fun to take the train out there instead.  We’re almost at the beginning of CalTrain.  There’s a stop or two south of us, but we’re really at the beginning of the line.  Which means that there’s only 3 trains that leave from Morgan Hill and only one that stops in Burlingame.  That train leaves at 6:45 a.m.

My lovely friend Kim picked up my Timptations box for me and we decided to skip the class so we could take the train.  Emma was super excited.  I packed the night before, ran the dishwasher and set my alarm for 5:30 a.m.

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the volume up on my alarm so when it went off I didn’t hear it.  I woke up at 6 in a panic.  Luckily, we live 5 minutes from the station, but still I was sure we would miss the train.  I threw on my clothes (I had the foresight the night before to set out the clothes that Emma and I would wear on the train) and woke Emma up, threw her clothes at her and told her to get dressed.  She cried because she was 1) tired. 2) grumpy & 3) thought we would miss our train and she wouldn’t see Daddy.  I ran and threw our stuff in the car, came back and miraculously she was dressed and we ran out the door.

We made it to the station with 10 minutes to spare.

She’s so tired!

Emma directed us to the upstairs and she squirmed around excited to be on the train and on our way.  Until the train took off the second stop and she announced she had to use the restroom.  We still had about an hour before we got to Burlingame and there are no bathrooms on the train. 

At the San Jose station there’s a train that leaves just about every 15 minutes and using the fancy CalTrain app I had downloaded onto my phone the night before I was able to figure out we could get off in San Jose and get right back on to the next train and make it to Burlingame.  It worked out perfectly!

We get off the train at Burlingame and I check Google Maps to see which way we’re supposed to walk to get to the hotel and realize the stop we got off on is 1.1 miles further away than I had thought.  We had to walk 2 miles to the hotel.

Now that might not sound like that much to you, but imagine this:  think about a woman who is about 30 weeks pregnant.  I am only 21 weeks, but I am as big as if I were 10 weeks further along.  I had my backpack that has my laptop, iPad, 3 hardback books, 3 paperback books, miscellaneous other crap.  Then Emma had her backpack with her junk to do in it, her rolling suitcase and I also had a slightly large travel bag that had the rest of our junk in it.  Emma pulled her suitcase along and wore her backpack, but after the first 1/2 mile of the almost 2 miles we had to walk she just couldn’t carry the backpack anymore.  So I took that.

Trucking along.

We stopped every other block or so to rest.  Finally, after we made it about a mile Ray was able to come and pick us up so we didn’t have to do the overpass over the freeway.  That was the best car ride EVER!

We hung out in the room, got some breakfast and then went out to the pool.  Of course, I had to fall in the hot tub paying more attention to Emma than myself.  I was able to grab the pole by the stairs, but that caused me to wrench my arm.  That was fun.

For dinner we took Emma to Benihana’s.  She didn’t want to go.  She wanted to go to McDonald’s.  Our kid’s palate is quite refined, you know.  She ended up in awe of the whole thing.  She loved our chef.  His name was Hiro, just like my uncle so that was instantly exciting for her.  She thought Hiro was pretty cool.

She’s expressing her disbelief at something Ray has told her.

Now she’s completely engrossed in the cooking!

When we woke up this morning I discovered that it was very difficult to move my entire body.  Good stuff.  But totally worth it.  Ray and I have spent the night apart very few times since we’ve been together so anytime away is no fun.  I just feel odd and sad when he’s not here.  And Emma too.  She’s got to have her little family unit under one roof to feel happy.

So now we’re all back home and everything’s back to normal.  Except for my friend Kim!  She’s broke her foot in two places last night!  Let’s hope for a super speedy recovery.  Until then, Emma’s decided we can temporarily adopt Kim’s kids.  This should be a good time had by all!

project 365, week 16

This week I decided to take all my pictures for the Project365 with my iPhone.  I used Instagram and Hipstamatic.  I love how even crappy pictures look interesting with the iPhone!  Nothing spectacular, but hey, it works!

4.18.11 – I had the worst craving for McDonald’s all day today and my wonderful hubby went out and got some for me!  Craving satisfied!

4.19.11 – Emma got a Monster High doll and for some reason they have interchangeable hands.  So not only does she have to take off the clothes for no good reason she also took the hands off and left them on the couch.  This is how I found them.  Kind of creepy.

4.20.11 – Here’s me waiting patiently for my root canal.  No fun, but at least I have an awesome dentist.

4.21.11 – I can’t remember what Chloe and I were doing but when I held up my phone to take a picture she knew just what I was doing and said ‘cheese!’.

4.22.11 – I took a picture of the candle next to me.  I love how it came out blurry.  

4.23.11 – Best.  Cheese.  Ever.

4.24.11 – Though she looks like Emma the Grump, she was actually not grumpy.  She was just waiting patiently.

4.25.11 – Lemon Ramen from Big Grill BBQ in Morgan Hill.  It’s our favorite Korean BBQ place and my favorite ramen anywhere!

project 365, week 14

Another so-so week.  I’m really losing steam here on this project!  We’ve been so busy too that I really haven’t thought about taking pictures too much either.  I’ve got to change my ways!

4.4.11 – This was my TBR pile for this week.  So far this was the best book week!  I wrote a review on These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf and Still Missing by Chevy Stevens.

4.5.11 – Ninja Batty Shogun.  Name says it all.

4.6.11 – Happy Birthday to my nephew Isaak!

4.7.11 – Emma started writing her own music.

4.8.11 – Even though it turned out a little blurry I loved the way the sunset looked through the trees in the backyard.

4.9.11 – Look at how not thrilled Emma looks to be roller skating.  She seems to have some sort of love-hate relationship with skating.  She really wants to skate, but just wishes she already could.

4.10.11 – I like the way the dream pop flash in Hipstamatic made my bath water look like Jell-o.

project 365, week 13

Woo hoo!  Three whole months done!  I must admit, this last month was trying.  I was just not in the mood very often to take pictures, but I stuck through it and now we start a whole new month!

3.28.11 – The first thing that I’ve craved so far this pregnancy.  Yummy, buttery, salty goodness!

3.29.11 – I was desperate to finish the 6 books I’d started the week before and set aside.  Some I loved (Divine By Mistake by PC Cast, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay), some were okay (Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Tell No One by Harlan Coben and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon) and some I hated (Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton), but I finished them!

3.30.11 – This guy and his neighbor are currently camped out right outside our backdoor.  Needless to say, that plug in the background?  It’s never getting plugged back in again.

3.31.11 – This is my favorite photo this week, maybe even this month.  I just loved the colors and the depth of field I got here.  Yep, patting myself on the back, pretty proud here.

4.1.11 – Cowboy dress up day at school.  I got her the hat, she provided the paper bag vest and napkin bandana.

4.2.11 – Waiting for our table at The Old Spaghetti Factory downtown I snapped this picture of the stained glass window and brick wall outside using Instagram on my phone.  I really loved the way it turned out.

4.3.11 – The last yellow hibiscus in my in-laws’ yard.  They have a couple of other colors too, but I’m drawn to the yellow ones.

Happy week everyone!